Simon Kernick - Severed

'Finally, a month ago, I got a break. My boyfriend, Martin, arrested a man for attempted murder after a bar fight. The man worked as security in a local brothel and he was looking at a long sentence for what he'd done, but when Martin showed him Petra's photo, he could see that the man recognized her. Petra is beautiful. She has dark hair, gorgeous brown eyes and olive skin. If someone sees her, they don't forget.'

I guess most don't forget Alannah either, but I don't say anything.

'The prisoner knew something,' she continues, 'Martin was sure of it, so he told him he'd speak to the judge about lowering the charges against him if he had any information on Petra. The prisoner still denied he knew her, and Martin couldn't get him to change his mind.'

Alannah pauses again, and fixes me with a cool stare.

'But what Martin couldn't achieve, I could. I managed to get access to him in his cell, and I told him that he was going to help. At first, he laughed and called me a foolish woman, dismissing me with a wave of his hand, and telling me to get back to the kitchen stove.'

Her voice hardens. 'That was a big mistake. After five minutes, when he was writhing in a pool of his own vomit, he got the message and admitted that he had indeed seen Petra some months earlier. She had no money and had approached a friend of his looking for work. The friend worked for a people trafficker called Goran who was always interested in finding pretty young women for work in England, where he and his associates could make big money out of them, not the pittance that's available in Belgrade. So Petra was shipped off, doubtless told that at the end of her journey she'd be provided with a good job and the chance of a happy life, and that she'd have a chance to phone her family to let them know she was safe and well.'

She laughs, but the sound is devoid of humour.

'The problem we have in Belgrade is that most people have very little money, and what money there is is in the hands of the criminals, so there is a great deal of corruption. I knew who Goran was, I knew what he'd done to my sister and the fate to which he'd sent her, but he is a protected man in the city. When I tried to question him, I was warned off by my bosses, told not to interfere, even when I explained to them what had happened. In the end, I knew there was no hope of getting Goran to help me get Petra back. I also knew that if I kept trying I'd lose my job, probably even my life.

'That's when I decided to come to England and see if I had more luck here. I knew Goran worked for a Bosnian Serb called Eddie Cosick. My plan was to take what little money I had and see if I could track Cosick down and somehow buy Petra back. Martin tried to persuade me not to go. He seemed to think it was better to let things be. But I'm not like that. And I refuse to give up on my sister, because I know she's still alive and needs my help.' She balls her hand into a fist and punches her chest, fixing me with an intense stare. 'I know it. Here, in my heart. She is alive.'

So, Alannah was determined to find her sister in the same way I was determined to find out who was behind Leah's murder. It seemed we had something in common after all.

'And have you met Eddie Cosick yet?'

She shakes her head. 'Not yet. He's surrounded by security. I was forced to take a different route. I studied what I could of his organization and found out who the people working for him were. But knowing their identities and being able to do something about it are two very different things. So, I managed to – how do you say it – ingratiate myself with one of them.'

'Marco?'

She pulls an expression of distaste. 'Yes. He is a violent pig, but he has a bit more respect for the women than any of the others. I started a relationship with him a few weeks ago. He's high up in the organization and close to Cosick so I've been trying to find out from him where my sister might be. But it's not been easy. Like all these guys, he's not very talkative. All he wants to do is fuck. I've got him to take me to the club on Orsman Road – the one you came to today – a couple of times, and I've managed to talk to a few of the girls who work there, but I've had to be very discreet. It's dangerous to be seen asking questions, both for them and me. The girls are terrified of their bosses.

'But in the last couple of days, the atmosphere's changed. Something big has definitely been happening. Marco has been taking lots of phone calls and disappearing for meetings. He won't tell me what it's all about, and I've hardly seen him all day. So, because the attention of everybody has been elsewhere, I decided to go to the club on my own this afternoon. I know the door staff and they work for Marco, so they let me in. They don't like me, and I knew I was taking a risk hanging round, asking questions, especially with Marco not there, but I've been feeling desperate. My money's running out. London's an extremely expensive city. Even a dump like this costs a lot to rent.

'I'd been there about an hour, talking to the barman and a couple of the girls, when I was told by Pero that Marco was back and he wanted to talk to me urgently. When I got up to his office, he shut the door and started to slap me around, asking me what I thought I was doing coming here on my own. Then he knocked me to the ground and demanded to know who I was working for.'

I nod slowly, adopting a sympathetic pose, though Marco obviously hadn't hit her very hard, because there wasn't a mark on her when we'd first met out in that hallway. I ask her if she saw the burgundy briefcase while she was there.

'No, there was no briefcase.'

'And what about other people? Who was with Marco?'

'Only Radovan and Alexander, the two men who were ordered to kill you.'

'I'm trying to work out who killed my friend, Snowy,' I explain. 'His throat was cut. There would almost certainly have been some blood on the perpetrator.'

'There was no blood on anyone when I saw them.'

'How long were you with the three of them before I came in?'

She shrugs. 'Only a few minutes. Three or four at most.'

I make some rough calculations. It seems extremely likely that Snowy's killer was Radovan, the same man who'd murdered Leah. He'd probably cleaned himself up by the time Alannah saw him. But I wonder why she never saw the briefcase.

'I heard the struggle outside in the hallway,' she continues, 'and the shot. And then Marco came running back in, telling us all that Pero was dead and a man with a gun was outside. Everyone went for their weapons, but then Marco made me go out there with the baton. He said he knew who you were and that you wouldn't shoot a lady.'

'He's right.'

'That's lucky, because he would, and he had a gun pointing at me when I went out to you.'

'Well, I guess you're forgiven, then. But what I don't understand is why Marco was trying to kill you in the flat just now.'

'Because I fucked up,' she answers evenly. 'He was still very angry when we left the brothel.'

'Hold on,' I interrupt, still slightly confused. 'When you left the brothel, he definitely wasn't carrying the briefcase?'

She shakes her head. 'No. I told you, I didn't see the briefcase.'

So now I'm wondering what the hell happened to it? Surely Marco wouldn't have left it behind. Not if it was that valuable. Which means someone else took it. But who?

'Anyway, Marco was still angry with me, but he was also in a hurry. He had to go somewhere urgently – he wouldn't say where – and he told me to go back to his flat to wait for him. As he left, I made an excuse and went back inside the building. I couldn't stand the idea of you being tortured to death in there. Radovan and Alexander are animals. I've heard what they've done to some of the girls who've tried to escape. I wanted to do something that would stop them but which wouldn't blow my cover, and I didn't have much time to think.'